Call Their Bluff

December 23, 1992

Cambodia's Khmer Rouge have gone into the hostage-taking business. Their targets are U.N. peacekeeping forces.

This deadly guerrilla group is also refusing to abide by the terms of a peace accord it signed last year, which requires the parties to disarm. The Khmer Rouge say they won't disarm until Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia.

Each time the U.N. peacekeepers have been detained, they have been released unharmed. In Phnom Penh, Khmer Rouge leaders have claimed they did not order the detentions and have asked that the captives be released.

It's true that the territory in which these incidents have happened is remote and communication is difficult. The guerrillas who have taken the hostages might be acting on their own initiative. But as long as the Khmer Rouge remain outside the peace process, they forfeit their right to participate in the upcoming elections that are part of the plan to bring stability to the country. The best course is to hold firm, to make it clear that the Khmer Rouge are only marginalizing themselves by taking hostages and refusing to disarm, and to put more pressure on Thailand, which is their main source of supply.

These people have been outlaws for a long time. It's unclear how much longer they're prepared to live in the mountains, sacrificing any voice in the future of their country except to create small incidents. Most Cambodians hate the Khmer Rouge for their genocidal purges in the 1970s. They must be made to understand that their only hope for legitimacy lies in cooperation with the peace process